Washington man who hurt daughter gets 14 years

PEKIN — A Washington man who seriously injured his baby daughter in 2012 was sentenced Tuesday to 14 years in prison.

“Somebody has to state loud and clear” the need “to protect the children in our society,” Tazewell County Circuit Judge Michael Brandt said when he sentenced Christopher List, 34, to one year less than the maximum available in the case. He must serve at least 85 percent of the sentence.

He pleaded guilty in February to aggravated battery to a child, his 3-month-old daughter. Assistant State’s Attorney Larry Evans said she will be at least partially blind in one eye and subject to brain-related disorders including cerebral palsy because of List’s violence.

She was brought to a Peoria hospital in August 2012 with head injuries. List claimed she rolled off a bed while he was caring for her alone. He later admitted shaking her and throwing her on the bed hard enough to bounce her off.

Defense attorney Charles Schierer told Brandt that List never received treatment for the clinical depression he’s apparently suffered since a childhood that was marred further by an abusive, alcoholic father.

“I’m sorry to everyone,” List said before he was sentenced.

“I need help. I want to be healthy again,” he said. “Give me the chance to be the person I’m supposed to be.”

The day he was to be sentenced in March, List climbed over a railing at the Tazewell County Justice Center and fell 12 feet to the concrete floor. He was hospitalized for several days.